Assassin’s Creed Shadows Review: Embrace the Shadows and Wield the Katana

Assassin’s Creed Shadows takes you on a journey across feudal Japan where a Shinobi and a Samurai fight for vengeance and peace.

Back in 2010 when I was introduced to the Assassin’s Creed series and started playing it, the first picture that my mind drew was that of ninjas. Stealthy warriors who are experts in killing and vanishing in plain sight – the similarity struck me. Fast forward a decade and some more years, whispers of an Assassin’s Creed title based in Japan, codenamed “Red”, started making rounds on the internet. And here I am, reviewing the same game that the scrawny kid had been waiting for.

Before I get to the main review, let me state one thing clearly. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is nothing like Valhalla or Odyssey. If I have to sum it up, it resembles what you would get if you combined elements from AC1, Brotherhood, and Origins. An interesting (and revered) mix of titles, isn’t it? Keep reading my review of Assassin’s Creed Shadows to discover what I mean exactly.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Continues the Assassin-Templar Conflict in Japan

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is like a jigsaw puzzle with thousands of pieces, which forms a grand but beautiful image when you finally piece them together. The sheer number of pieces will overwhelm you, often making you question their relation to the main narrative. But when you finally string the pieces together, you see something memorable, a scheme worthy of the Templar Order.

The overarching narrative of the game goes back to the Templars manipulating world politics to gain control, with the Assassins trying to thwart their plans. For fans of the Ezio trilogy, you would be happy to know that the Spaniard Templars are at it again, pulling the strings from the shadows.

Combat and Gameplay

If you have played Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, you know how Jacob and Evie’s styles were similar yet different. They had the same moves for the most part, and your playstyle largely did not matter. I came into Shadows with a similar expectation, very confident that Naoe will be my primary protagonist (still cannot let go of living my ninja fantasy). I quickly found out how wrong I was, and in a really good way.

Yasuke and Naoe have very different styles of play, and I will have to applaud how well they gel together. Naoe is nimble, has the typical “assassin” style, and prefers dealing damage from…the shadows. What Naoe cannot do, Yasuke excels in. For most of the main story missions, you get to choose which character you want to play with. Initially, I went with Naoe for most of my missions. She can climb walls, utilize a lot of stealth to cause utter chaos, and even take silent, ranged fights.

Walking on walls or reaching high altitudes is a walk in the park for her, and the game does a great job of making sure Yasuke notes that as well (in a rather snarky manner, at times). However, Naoe is not that great at handling mobs of enemies. If you look from an “assassin” perspective, she isn’t supposed to be visible at all. Go in, go out, a subterfuge mission. For missions where you need to assassinate a single high-value target, Naoe is a star.

Naoe’s Stealth: Working in the Dark

Shadows attempts to bring some stellar stealth gameplay back, and it is quite successful in that regard. The darkness (psst, shadows) is your best friend, and the light is your true enemy. Naoe is near invisible in darkness, and she can break lamps or extinguish flames to create her own domain expansion of darkness. Enemies will rarely see you in shade, and that creates unique gameplay opportunities.

You can hide in tall grass or bushes, inside wells, or inside the classic haystack. Enemies will be oblivious unless you do something preposterous to get their attention. Tools like smoke bombs further allow you create more cover and work fast to assassinate enemies. Indoor locations have rooftops where you can cling on to and structures for you to hide in. Stealth assassinations are also a thing, though you won’t really need them for the most part. (More on this explained in a bit.)

Sound plays an important factor, however. While eyesight is dependent on light, hearing is much more refined. Guards will often get wind of you if you run too much in bushes. Eagle Vision goes back to the roots and highlights enemies in red for you to mark them. However, it does not show you vision cones like in Mirage.

On the downside, stealth can be too powerful at times. It might become an easy way out for many. With the rope-tool, gaining access to rooftops is as simple as pressing one button. And I did find myself abusing this in many cases. Enemies for some reason cannot keep track of you on rooftops. Naoe kills someone in broad daylight and is spotted by everyone. Then, she quickly goes to the roof and cuts off direct line-of-sight with the enemies. After a really lackluster attempt by the enemies at scouting the area, she is invisible again. Do this in a loop, and you can methodically complete entire castles while staying anonymous.

I will admit that some areas have alarm bells. If you are spotted, someone will rush to ring it, which will give you a wanted status. This is not a loose term, and all enemies will be on high alert in an entire region after this. You can easily sabotage it though and then get back to abusing the rooftop system for a stealthy experience.

This is also why stealth assassinations are not rewarding or satisfying. With a sureshot way to become anonymous, where’s the incentive to perform a stealth skill move? I do not particularly dislike this variation of stealth, but it keeps me yearning for more. While it does feel like a step in the right direction, I do wish for a more interactive or punishing stealth system that would make me strategize.

Yasuke’s Brute: Serving The Light

Yasuke, on the other hand, is a brute. While you can be stealthy as Yasuke, your physique does not allow for it. Yasuke thrives in causing wanton destruction. And his fighting style is a testament to that — breaking doors and barricades, using Spartan kicks, and wielding heavier weapons like the Naginata or the Kanabo. Playing as Yasuke will essentially have you barge in from the front door, since stealth is not your forte. If you are underleveled and want to take on tougher bosses, Yasuke is your man for sure.

He cannot climb walls as easily and is restricted because of his stature as well. If you get him on rooftops, he will often wobble and fall down. It’s the funniest when Yasuke performs a jump from high ground. Since he is not an Assassin, he does not perform a leap of faith. Instead, he jumps down and will instantly comically bounce out of the haystack, like it is a trampoline.

The mix of gameplay also creates an uncanny balance. It allows you to enjoy two types of gameplay, being target-specific or creating a graveyard of bodies while you make your way to the final destination.

Combat: Weapons Galore

Combat is my second favorite thing about the entire Assassin’s Creed Shadows game. There’s variety, splendor, gore, and class. All of them clubbed in a system that made me question my weapon choices several times during the playthrough. I am a huge fan of the Kusarigama weapon and had planned to main it on Naoe for as much of my gameplay as possible. I did end up playing a lot with the Katana-Kusarigama combination, till I found out I can be Ezio Auditore da Firenze if I had a Tanto instead.

The Tanto is essentially a blanket weapon that works as your second Hidden Blade. Short-ranged melee combat with quick slashes and double assassination abilities – sounds familiar? Blocking, dodging, and counter-attacking all return to form the perfect dance of death. And then there are the special moves, adding a cinematic flair with a monochrome effect that shows bright red splashes of blood.

For Yasuke, he is a Samurai who seems to have better Spartan genes than Alexios and Kassandra. Choosing weapons for Yasuke proved to be a far more intense dilemma than that for Naoe. The Long Katana is an absolute joy and has satisfying combat moves. I found myself swapping between the Kanabo and Naginata for his secondary, both with ample damage and moves that would make the next switch a harder choice. If you are a One Piece fan, Yasuke has a skill that very closely resembles Conqueror’s Haki. Go ahead and have some fun with that.

Character Builds and Loadouts

Assassin’s Creed Shadows offers the familiar character build screen, though with a wider depth this time. As mentioned before, Naoe and Yasuke can have two weapons each, but there are six skill trees for each to manage. For the Iga-hime, you get access to Assassin and Shinobi skill trees. The names are self explanatory and generally make you a deadlier presence at any given time. Similarly, Yasuke has access to a special Samurai Tree other than his weapons.

Weapon and armor customization takes a new approach as you can change the appearance of all weapons and armors. Once I unlocked the Assassin Suit, I rarely got out of it. I simply customized whatever armor I had to appear in like the Assassin suit. Moreover, you can also choose to hide armor pieces and headgear completely, which might be something you enjoy for cosmetic or aesthetic purposes.

World Exploration

Remember the days of Assassin’s Creed 1 where you had to set out as Altair to reach new locations? Shadows gave me a very similar feeling, only with a much more beautiful world. The lands are not completely brazen, and you will find a lone Ronin or a pilgrim here and there. Each region that you discover has life in it and has secrets for you to uncover. It is not a full-scale RPG like the Origins-Odyssey-Valhalla trio, but it can be a sandbox for how you want to play the game.

Some areas are soft-locked to Yasuke and Naoe specifically. I say “soft-lock” because you can choose any of the characters, but they are impossible to traverse without the right character. For example, Yasuke will not be able to crawl under many surfaces owing to his physique. And in some cases, Naoe is not able to move or break walls and other objects that Yasuke can easily deal with. The good part is you can switch characters unless you are wanted or in a restricted area.

The Scout System is a new addition. These scouts can scan a region to mark your objective for you. However, you need to deduce the area on your own and unlock everything there manually. I will admit that this feature saw me getting lazy in the mid-game stages and I just spammed my scouts to find my objective rather than search for it. However, repeated use of Scouts costs money, which I was out of very soon.

Stellar Visuals

In modern internet lingo, the visuals of Assassin’s Creed Shadows are “absolute cinema!” This is the first game in a really really long time where I enjoyed manually traveling to each region rather than fast traveling. The world feels incredibly alive due to its dynamic weather system. The experience will leave you in awe. I’ll try to be as poetic as I possibly can for this next part.

You’re traversing a serene forest path, and a gentle breeze stirs. Golden and red leaves, detached from their branches, spiral downwards, catching the sunlight as they float on the wind’s invisible currents. You feel the crisp autumn air as the leaves whoosh past you. The air around you seems to shimmer with the movement. I could almost feel the wind on my skin; it helped that my PC sits right beside a window, so I got the authentic experience.

Shifting your gaze, you can see gusts of wind ripple through vibrant flower beds and fields, bending the stems in graceful waves. The motion is fluid and natural, making the scene feel alive. When you approach a flock of birds resting peacefully, they erupt into the sky, their wings beating perfectly together, creating a spectacle of a view. Assassin’s Creed Shadows does an amazing job of creating immersive realism that only pulls you deeper into the world.

The weather in itself is a character. During a sudden downpour, raindrops splatter, creating visible ripples on every surface. You can almost feel the chill as the rain soaks the earth. And then, there’s the arrival of winter. Snowfall covers the landscape in a pristine white. Your footsteps leave imprints, and your movement slows as you wade through the accumulating powder. The transition from light snow to a thick, heavy blanket is seamless. As you get to higher altitudes, the snow deepens, becoming a formidable obstacle if you are on foot.

When spring arrives, the gradual thaw becomes evident once again, the melting snow leaving small puddles of water around. Assassin’s Creed Shadows doesn’t just show you Japan; it allows you to experience it, to feel the very essence of its ever-changing seasons.

Sound: Where Assassin’s Creed Outdid Themselves

I can wholeheartedly say this is the best sounding Assassin’s Creed title I have ever played. The music perfectly captures every moment, whether you are dashing through a breezy tranquil forest or galloping up a narrow creek. And then there are the fights. I cannot explain how many time I had goosebumps during the course of the game, whether it be during regular exploration or fights. During combat, the peace and calm music aggressively but smoothly switches over to an adrenaline pumping melody of old-school punk-rock and modern synth-pop.

The stellar audio and the spectacular visuals form the perfect immersive audio-visual experience. If you have a decent sound system on your device, prepare for a journey that will make you crave more, be it the calm and quiet, or the aggressive combat beats.

Performance

Ubisoft Quebec has done an absolutely astounding job with the game’s performance. I was playing on high settings at 2K resolution with RTX turned on, and I did not stutter even for a single moment in the entire game. Whether it was cutscenes, or duels, or mob fights, or simply cruising through the lands — it was single fluid motion all throughout.

Admittedly, my setup is a decent one with the following specs:

• AMD Ryzen 5 7600X
• Nvidia RTX 4070 Super
• 32 GB of 6000 MHz RAM

Now, while my PC is no top-tier gaming rig, it certainly is an above average build. However, my peers who have played on a system with lower configurations have confirmed that they faced no issues with the game either.

Oda Nobunaga’s Prodigal Samurai and the Japanese Assassin Order Progenitor’s Daughter Define Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Assassin’s Creed Shadows weaves an amazing tale, but you need to have patience for it to finish its work. Set in the Feudal Japan of Oda Nobunaga’s time, the game takes a somewhat linear approach. Japan is a big land, and you will very prominently get to see the aftermath of the feudal lord’s bloodbath and warmongering. Ruined castles, poverty, authority exploiting its power and abusing the needy — it’s all there. Does all of it fit into the storyline? To a great extent, yes.

I’ll be very honest here, the story and your actions will feel scattered at times. For a good part of the game, I felt like I was wearing the Assassin blade without knowing the importance that it holds. It’s just another memorabilia from Naoe’s parents, which was a covert group. You will see the familiar Assassin crest during the wee hours of the game to completely forget about it for a very long time.

Naoe’s story is a classic revenge-driven narrative, which is very similar to that of Connor Kenway from Assassin’s Creed 3. Her father gets killed by a mysterious group called the Shinbakufu, and she sets out to find them and retrieve what they stole. Replace Charles Lee from AC3 with the Shinbakufu, and you have a similar plot. Or so I thought, till it blew out of proportion massively.

The Templars are at it again, but they are more subtle than before. You will only learn about the Templar narrative during the end stages of the story. You will find out that they were manipulating the Shinbakufu to do their bidding. Oda Nobunaga seems to have been an unfortunate collateral that spun the wheels of fate to tie Yasuke and Naoe together in this mission. Now, I did mention that Naoe wears the blade without knowing its meaning, but it might have been what saved her from death by the hands of Yasuke.

Yasuke had his reasons for sparing Naoe and allying with the Kakushiba ikki, which is what Naoe’s order is called. The poverty, the exploitation, and the corruption — all eventually becomes fodder that fuels our protagonist’s fight against the order.

Enemies: The Branches Collude

Throughout the course of the game, you will only find your objective board expanding. Each group of allies or enemies will reveal yet another group, with missions for you to complete. The course of your actions affects the main story, which still revolves around the Shinbakufu. The progression is similar to that of previous titles, where each clue from a separate branch gives you information for something else.

Some missions are linear, whereas others will require you to visit multiple places and kill multiple targets to progress to the next stage. If you help your allies, you will also get in their good books, and some will even help you out during your battles. Once you tie everything together, a new picture emerges altogether – the Templar Order.

Now this is the part that feels very similar to AC Origins instead. You hunt a group and find out about the Templars at the very end. Did you fight the Templars from the very beginning? Technically yes. You were going through the lower ranks to get to the main Templar heads.

The Main Blemish in an Otherwise Great Narrative

What I found odd here is that Yasuke single-handedly took the fight to the Templars, and this was out of personal vendetta. Naoe was the Assassin, so she should have been the one to take the fight to them. But, these missions were locked to Yasuke, unfortunately. The main story of Assassin’s Creed Shadows ends with Yasuke declaring war against the Templars as part of the Kakushiba ikki, but that’s all we had.

I was left feeling empty. What of the Assassin order? Does Naoe understand the true meaning of the symbol she wears? Does she know what the Templars are, given how Yasuke was the one who fought the battles and unearthed their secrets? The Assassin Order and their Creed is a sacred vow, but Naoe does not understand its depth it seems. I would not say this is a cliffhanger ending, but a very abrupt one. We might possibly get more answers and a continuation of this in the subsequent DLCs. That said, a proper closure would have been chef’s kiss after an otherwise brilliant tale.

What Keeps Assassin’s Creed Shadows From Being a Truly Great Game

I mostly have positive things to say about Assassin’s Creed Shadows. However, my major complaint with the game revolves around the enemies, especially those stationed in castles and other high-security areas. The rooftop-stealth issue aside, these NPCs also have terrible peripheral vision. There vision seems to be restricted to only about a 45-degree width, and they will not detect you even if you approach from their sides. Mirage had a similar problem, and I had expected the development team to improvise on this aspect, but alas.

Another problem, once again with enemy NPCs, is that some of them are unkillable. To be fair, the word “immortal” is more fitting, because you can kill them but they instantly come back to life. These enemies will not attack you, and they quite literally seem to be a glitch in the matrix. You can keep stealth assassinating them again and again, and they will come back to life every single time. I encountered three such enemies throughout my gameplay, all in castles. On the plus side, you do get EXP each time you kill them, so this could be a really annoying infinite EXP glitch.

There’s not a lot of focus on parkour, but there are some climbing issues with the game as well. Some stone structures are impossible to scale, unless you keep shifting your position ever so slightly to reach that perfect gap. I would understand if this was a problem with Yasuke, but it haunts Naoe equally. My understanding is that the height on rocks and other natural structures you can climb up to is capped. However, a clear indication would have helped here, especially because Naoe can easily climb higher artificial structures like buildings or towers.

In Conclusion

Assassin’s Creed Shadows perfectly balances the classic stealth approach of the original franchise with a dynamic combat system. While the dual protagonist system is not new, the absolute contrast in their gameplay is a fresh take. The stunning world of feudal Japan, brought to life by the game’s visuals and astounding soundtrack, will make a lasting impression on you. All in all, the audio-visual aspect sets a new bar for the franchise, one that would be hard to beat.

Despite its minor flaws, Assassin’s Creed Shadows delivers a satisfying and immersive experience. The compelling characters, their stories, the living world, and the engaging gameplay — they far outweigh the shortcomings of the game. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a worthy addition to this franchise, and a must-play for fans.

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We provide the latest news and create guides for Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Meanwhile, you can check out the following AC Shadows articles or catch us playing games on Twitch and YouTube:

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows: PS5 and Xbox Performance and Quality Modes Explained
• Can You Do One-Shot Assassinations in Assassin’s Creed Shadows?
• How To Get Assassin’s Creed Shadows Slash of Sprecher for Free
• Who Are the Assassin’s Creed Shadows Protagonists? Everything We Know About Yasuke and Naoe
• Can You Play Assassin’s Creed Shadows on Steam Deck
• Assassin’s Creed Shadows Release Time Countdown for All Regions